Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 015-074
Date: Sunday, November 21, 1971 at 6:37 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); White House operator; Graham, William F. ("Billy")
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/015-074

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:03] Hello.
[0:04] Hi, Billy, how are you?
[0:06] Fine.
[0:07] Where are you, in North Carolina?
[0:10] Right, right.
[0:15] Oh, well, that was one of those things where you had to kick the old man on.
[0:29] Ha, ha, ha, ha.
[0:30] Yeah.
[0:39] And told them what you were going to do.
[0:41] Yeah, yeah.
[0:41] And I think I ran into him, came out way on top of that team.
[0:43] Well, it's, I think, I really think that the people really don't want to see any labor leader or anybody else go that far, you know, the way he did.
[0:47] You had to take him on.
[0:47] Well, you know, there's a new book published by Harold MacMillan, another former prime minister.
[0:49] Oh, yeah?
[0:54] And that's what he spoke to Churchill, he said.
[1:01] If you don't do what's unpopular, they don't believe you're in earnings.
[1:21] That's what Churchill told McMillan.
[1:22] If you don't do what's unpopular?
[1:22] If you don't do what's unpopular, they don't believe you're in earnings.
[1:24] That's a very good point.
[1:24] And you've shown a lot of courage in every issue that comes up.
[1:30] Well, that's important.
[1:42] I'm just fine, just fine.
[1:45] I'm going out to California for that Eisenhower Center thing over the weekend, so I have to be there Thanksgiving and then
[1:55] We'll have a very busy month of December as usual with various visitors and so forth.
[2:16] Yeah, that's far more important.
[2:17] That's far more important.
[2:21] Very good.
[2:22] Very good.
[2:33] Sure.
[2:34] Set it right.
[2:35] Sure.
[2:35] Good.
[2:36] Good.
[2:36] Now, you're going to Africa, aren't you?
[2:45] Good.
[2:45] Good.
[2:45] Right.
[2:45] Right.
[2:46] Good.
[2:55] Good.
[2:57] Good.
[2:57] Right.
[2:58] When will you go there?
[2:59] When will you be there?
[3:03] The 8th of December.
[3:11] The 8th of December.
[3:12] Right.
[3:12] Right.
[3:14] We'll do it.
[3:15] Oh, yeah.
[3:15] Yeah.
[3:15] Sure.
[3:16] I'll tell you, I'll give you a good paper, you know what I mean, just a brief one about the various points that may be raised that you might want to have some information on.
[3:43] I know they are.
[3:45] Right.
[3:49] Tell me this, where else will you go on the trip?
[4:01] I won't go anywhere, but I'll probably cover my trip with a couple of beaches.
[4:10] Right.
[4:10] I see.
[4:10] Like you'll go to some place like Tokyo or Manila?
[4:11] Good.
[4:11] Good.
[4:12] Good.
[4:13] That's just great.
[4:41] Good.
[4:41] Good.
[4:41] Good.
[4:41] Good.
[4:41] Very good.
[4:44] Sure, and you can tell him what your father-in-law thinks, too, you know.
[4:50] Well, that's right.
[4:51] That's what I'm going to do.
[4:52] Right, right, right.
[4:52] Well, tell me, then you go, then you'll come back here.
[4:54] I'm coming back to Princeton, and I'm going to meet your wife and father-in-law.
[5:04] Yeah.
[5:04] And I'm going down to New York Bay, where you were last week.
[5:05] That's great.
[5:07] Are you going to be at that same place?
[5:08] I'm going to be at the same place.
[5:09] We go there every year.
[5:11] Do you really?
[5:11] Yeah, I've been going for about nine years.
[5:12] But it must be nice at that time of year, too.
[5:13] Oh, it's nice.
[5:15] And you take two weeks there.
[5:24] I take two weeks every year.
[5:35] Well, I get that.
[5:35] December's going to be a very busy month for me because I have to do solo foreign things, you know what I mean?
[5:38] People are coming in, the British and the French and the rest.
[5:39] We're not going to announce it until next week.
[5:40] But I go to meet with people like Heath and Pompidou and the rest.
[5:42] And then the latter part of, of course,
[5:43] The first of January, that January is taken up in the State of the Union and all that stuff.
[5:54] And then after that, I have to do something in Latin America.
[6:01] So that'll be busy.
[6:02] And then I have to go right into the preparation for China in February, you see.
[6:03] I spent three hours with LSU.
[6:04] Yeah.
[6:04] He's a great boss.
[6:12] Yes, oh yes.
[6:39] Where is that, London?
[6:39] Yeah.
[6:40] Right.
[6:40] Yeah.
[6:40] Yeah.
[6:41] Sure, sure.
[6:45] Well, these are times, you know, when we've had to do some hard things in the international front.
[6:52] In fact, I'm going to have Connolly do a press conference tomorrow at 12 o'clock.
[6:59] We don't want to use him too much, but he's really the only effective big gun we've got.
[7:03] You know what I mean?
[7:05] the other people in the cabinet are all very responsible people, but Conley really gets across, don't you think so?
[7:24] Yes, yeah.
[7:29] He said that?
[7:33] Good.
[7:33] Yeah.
[7:35] Right.
[7:36] Right.
[7:44] Sure.
[7:44] Well, isn't that good?
[7:44] Yeah.
[7:44] He's one of the best men, too.
[7:45] Well, I'll tell you that.
[7:46] How are the British getting along?
[7:54] Yeah.
[7:57] Yeah.
[7:58] They really are having, still having a real problem, huh?
[8:04] Well, and they've just got to win.
[8:10] That's all there is to it.
[8:14] Well, they've got to go through their tough time, too, but I think they're going to make it somewhere.
[8:23] I don't know.
[8:23] Fortunately, they've got four more years to go, and they just take those hard decisions and hope they can win.
[8:28] But the country, you have still a feeling that it has a really moral malaise in England.
[8:36] Yeah, yeah.
[8:57] Good heavens.
[8:57] This is in England, isn't that terrible?
[8:58] No.
[8:58] Yeah, down in Greenwich Village.
[9:03] Right.
[9:04] All right.
[9:04] Well, do you think they could...
[9:05] I don't suppose I think they can do anything about it.
[9:08] Probably they've gone too far.
[9:28] Yeah.
[9:28] Really?
[9:28] Good.
[9:29] Oh, yeah, I've read... Yeah, I've read his stuff.
[9:34] He really, really writes beautifully.
[10:02] Oh, yeah.
[10:02] Oh, I'll tell you.
[10:03] Well, it...
[10:05] There may be something going on here.
[10:08] Well, you even take this country, with all the things that we all see wrong, we've got to realize, I was just thinking compared to what it was, oh, three, well, four years ago, actually, when I was campaigning.
[10:29] But the situation has really very substantially changed.
[10:30] I mean, you've still got a lot of problems, but when we think of what was happening in the cities and the colleges and universities and so forth and so on,
[10:35] at least there's been a gradual change, not as much as we would like, but something is a little better than it was.
[10:59] And Charlotte, yeah.
[11:01] Yeah.
[11:01] Yeah.
[11:04] Yeah.
[11:04] Yeah.
[11:07] Now they're trying to sabotage our efforts to get out.
[11:09] But we're going to make that.
[11:11] Let me say, there's one thing you can be sure of.
[11:13] The war will not be an issue next year.
[11:16] It'll take a little time, but, you know, we've got to do it the right way, and we're moving along very fast.
[11:23] The economy, I would say that the month of December will be, I think, a very good month.
[11:29] And the retail sales, I think that's going to be the break point there.
[11:31] But nobody can tell.
[11:33] Connolly and I have the same view, though.
[11:47] We have a view that it's just one of those things where the movement is coming along, and we would like to have a little faster.
[11:50] We're not getting the cooperation we would like from the Congress.
[11:51] They're loading our tax bill up with a lot of things that should be in it, which will not be good for you, Connolly.
[12:00] What do you think of that?
[12:05] If we start doing that, then we...
[12:37] Well, we're going to have to... Well, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.
[12:44] And I know you're going to have a great trip to Africa.
[12:55] I think it'll be fine.
[12:56] I think it's fine you're going.
[12:57] And also out there to Taiwan.
[12:58] Before you go or after you go, I'll see you, of course, because I want to know what's going on, what you find out.
[13:02] And I'll see that you get a really good paper on that or you come and talk to me, but I appreciate it.
[13:07] He told me.
[13:08] He told me about it.
[13:09] I already have it in the works.
[13:11] I knew you were going.
[13:13] I know it.
[13:15] Fine.
[13:15] You'll give my best to it, will you?
[13:18] Okay.